Just like how the Catholics visit the tombs of the their dearly departed on All Souls’ Day, the Chinese have a similar event spanning the whole month. It is tradition mixed with Taoism, whereby incense is burnt and food is offered to the dead every year.
Traditionally when people were buried as a whole. there were tombs and we needed to cut the grass and sweep the area around the tombs. It is a sort of spring cleaning for the dead’s ‘home’.
However, due to the scarcity of land here in Singapore, mostly all the dead are cremated and put into urns. We sometimes joking say that they are now living in apartment blocks for there are a few levels and each level has got many urns, like the windows of apartment blocks.
I used to hate going for such events as the incense smarts my eyes and causes them to tear. Plus, we have to wake up super early to fight for parking and beat the crowd. I have however, come to accept that it is part of tradition and that it is out of respect for the dead and living alike (the elders) to go for such events. I do not hold incense anymore but I just give three bows.
Another reason for me penning all this down is because, I went to watch another film called “In the name of God”. It is about Islam, Jihaad, Al Qaeda and the Americans. It attempts to show both sides of the story: the good and not-so-good side of Islam and the good and not-so-good-side of the Americans. How much of it is true, I do not know. After all, it is just a film, but there was something that a character said that kind of woke me up a little.
He said that people often mix tradition up with religion and vice versa. Sometimes, we need to recognise that certain things we do is out of tradition and not a requirement of a religion. He was of course, speaking in Islamic terms.
I guess I am saying all this coz I grew up seeing some of cousins quarrelling with their parents when they converted to Christianity. They refuse to hold any incense, they refuse to visit the tombs, they refused to eat anything that had been used to pray to the departed.
I guess, to me, visiting the tombs is just out of respect. To me, it’s ok if we do not hold incense or eat or the food afterwards but being present, is enough respect.
